Of course we are concerned that there might be a further change of plans. And we have established our strategy accordingly so that we can react to any potential new scenario.
It's really an end-to-end space system, not just a vehicle.
The international nature of the thing is totally essential. We wouldn't have been able to build a space station ourselves.
The availability of more than one transportation system offers a robustness that has great advantage over reliance on a single system. We would like an independent way of getting access to the International Space Station (ISS).
It's like the station's arm, capable of walking from base point to base point.
We're desperately anxious to get Columbus up. Having 10 tons of hardware sitting around in Bremen, or even in Florida, doesn't do a lot for you.
It gave us the opportunity of completely cleaning that up and replacing it rather than doing a botch up and keeping our fingers crossed.
Clipper could also support exploration of the Moon. The concept could even be aimed at going much further.
